Non-Christian - not my brother

I can't imagine. If you're not a Christian, why would you be offended to be told that you're not a Christian?

Why would someone be offended by the truth? If one is not a Christian then they are not a Christian. Big deal!

Nowhere did he say if you were not a Christian he was going to treat you differently. Well, then I guess I am excluded from a privileged status that non-believers enjoy because they have a non-believing politicians in my state? Thomas, seriously, I find that ridiculous.

How considerate is it to tell the atheist you'll pray for them.

In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications.

Researchers emphasized that their work can't address whether God exists or answers prayers made on another's behalf. The study can only look for an effect from prayers offered as part of the research, they said.

They also said they had no explanation for the higher complication rate in patients who knew they were being prayed for, in comparison to patients who only knew it was possible prayers were being said for them.

n a similar vein, those conducting studies of the effects of intercessory prayer are well aware that their study populations (the people being studied) aren't scientifically pure. Groups that are not meant to receive prayer in a study may be prayed for by people outside of the experiment. And those who are meant to receive prayer may also receive additional prayer from others outside of the study. Patients, too, may pray for themselves. Each of these factors effectively destroys the reliability of the data. This is akin to an experiment testing the potential for a fertilizer to grow grass where the researcher can't say with absolute certainty that no one else has come along afterward and added more fertilizer.

Despite -- or possibly because of -- the obstacles, the debate over the medical value of intercessory prayer continues. As long as people believe in prayer, science will probably continue to investigate its effects. But until methodologies can be refined or until irrefutable evidence for or against prayer's power is uncovered, belief in prayer as a factor in healing will continue to be a matter of faith.

All you're doing is refusing to validate the feelings of others, that differ from your own.
Silly or not ( in whomever's opinion ), the feelings of others are deserving of validation, especially when they are not our own.

Mr Bentley isn't just any old politician. He's the governor, the number-one politician in the state of Alabama---just as Mr. Jindal is the number-one politician in the state of Louisiana.

I am suppose to validate the feelings of people I don't even know?

Suppose I said, "Arella, gues what? You're a whore". Of course, you and your friends would get offended, so the next day I would offer the following for an "apology" : "I'm sorry if I offended Arella by pointing out she's a whore" Would that satisfy you? I think it shouldn't. By the same token, I don't think Bentley's "apology" should satisfy anyone who felt offended in the first place.

same principle. The thought that a non-believing politician in my state is going to show favoritism to other non-believers never crossed my mind. This is life. It's what we have to deal with. [/color]

You KNOW Catholics aren't Christians.

or at least that's what my hairdresser told me